


heart don't forget

by Fives (janfives90)



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: Carnival AU, F/F, Songfic, Summer AU, of a sort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24175414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janfives90/pseuds/Fives
Summary: It’s not stalking.She’s just walking through the crowd, coincidentally in the same direction as the girl and her friends.It’s not stalking, because stalking is creepy, and that’s not a good way to get a girl’s attention.Granted, Emma’s pretty sure that repeatedly insisting to herself that something isn’t stalking is a fine indicator that it really, really is.
Relationships: Alyssa Greene/Emma Nolan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 59





	heart don't forget

If Emma had a list of ways to spend her Labor Day weekend, getting dragged to a carnival by her cousin wouldn’t crack the top fifty.

“Come on, it won’t be that bad,” Greg says, throwing his arm around Emma’s shoulders. “It’s the end of summer! Have some fun!”

“Carnivals are fun?” Emma asks dryly. She looks down at his hand and ducks out of his grip, grimacing. “Dude, gross, where did you even get _barbecue?”_

He points over his shoulder. “The cute guy with the stand back there offered me a sample.”

“You’re going to get it on my shirt, asshole.”

“It’s not my fault you wore a white t-shirt.” Greg throws out the napkin he was using as a plate and licks his fingers clean.

Emma rolls his eyes. “What did you think that napkin was for?”

He just stares at her for a long moment. “...Oh.”

“This might be why you don’t get dates.”

“Hey!” Greg shoves her lightly. “I don’t see _you_ dating anybody, either.”

“Maybe I’m just-” Emma stops in her tracks, her brain faltering.

There’s a girl standing at the ticket booth, laughing with her friends. Her hair is pulled up into a ponytail, and she’s wearing shorts and a red t-shirt, and she’s definitely the prettiest girl on Earth, bar none.

Greg follows Emma’s gaze. “Maybe you’re just what? Gay?”

“Go do something else,” Emma says, her voice almost hoarse.

“What are you going to do, stalk her?”

She shoves at him. _“Go do something else.”_

“Fine, fine, be that way.” Greg walks away, muttering under his breath.

Emma watches the girl as she gets her tickets, then follows her through the crowd.

* * *

It’s not stalking.

She’s just walking through the crowd, coincidentally in the same direction as the girl and her friends.

It’s not stalking, because stalking is creepy, and that’s not a good way to get a girl’s attention.

Granted, Emma’s pretty sure that repeatedly insisting to herself that something _isn’t_ stalking is a fine indicator that it really, really is.

She bites her lip, trying to come up with a plan, when she suddenly runs out of time.

“Why are you following us?”

Emma looks up quickly, pale, and realizes that the girl has hung back and lost her friends, now standing in front of Emma and staring at her with her hands on her hips.

“U-Uh…” Emma stammers. “I… wasn’t?”

The girl raises an eyebrow. “If you have to think about it, I’m pretty sure it’s a problem.”

Emma blushes. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean any harm or anything, I’ve just been trying to figure out a way to talk to you.”

“Talk to me? Why?”

“Uhm.” _Pull it together, Nolan._ “You’re… pretty.” She winces. _Great._

The girl stares at her for a long moment before laughing. “How long were you following that that’s the best you could come up with?”

Emma sighs heavily. “I’m honestly too ashamed to even say.”

She smiles. “My name’s Alyssa. What’s yours?”

“...Emma.”

Alyssa reaches out and grabs her hand. “Come on, Emma. Let’s go have some fun.”

* * *

“I don’t understand,” Emma stammers as Alyssa drags her through the carnival.

“My friends were caught up in their own thing, and I wanted to go off by myself.” Alyssa grins at her. “And for a stalker, you’re cute.”

“I-I… _what?”_

Alyssa stops abruptly, making Emma almost run into her. “If you can’t figure out what to say to me, Emma, why don’t you show me?”

Emma just blinks at her, baffled.

“If…” Alyssa glances down. “If that wasn’t what you wanted, it’s fine, I can-”

Emma tightens her grip on Alyssa’s hand. “No.”

Alyssa looks back up at her. “No?”

“Treating you to a good carnival experience seems like the least I can do.” Emma shrugs, smiling shyly. “And I’ve never been very good at turning down pretty girls.”

Alyssa shakes her head and laughs, the laugh turning into an excited giggle as Emma takes off at a run, pulling Alyssa with her through the crowd.

* * *

Emma curses at the last bottle left standing as the baseball hits the back of the booth.

“Come on, Em, nobody ever wins at these things,” Alyssa says, standing next to her and eating funnel cake.

“Yeah, but now I’m mad at it. One more throw.” She gives another dollar to the bored attendant, then throws the ball hard at the bottom of the pyramid. Emma punches the air as all the bottles fall. “Ha!” She turns to Alyssa, beaming. “And you doubted me.”

“I did, too,” Alyssa says.

Emma points at a stuffed animal prize and presents the goofy purple shark to Alyssa. “M’lady.”

Alyssa lets out a sharp laugh and throws out her empty plate, wiping the powder off of her hands before taking the shark. “Thank you. I love him.”

“As you should. I worked hard for that.”

Alyssa loops her arm in Emma’s. “The sun’s starting to set,” she sighs.

“Does that mean something?” Emma bumps their shoulders together playfully. “Does your car turn into a pumpkin at dusk?”

“No,” Alyssa says with a snort. “But I do have to leave soon. My mom doesn’t want me to stay out too late.”

“Well… We can see some of the sunset from the Ferris wheel before you go?”

Alyssa gives her a soft smile. “I’d like that.”

* * *

“Oh, wow,” Emma whispers. “Look at that.”

Alyssa leans next to her in the car of the Ferris wheel, looking out over the river at the setting sun. “It’s beautiful,” she murmurs. She takes Emma’s hand and sets her head on Emma’s shoulder. “Hey… Emma?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Emma frowns at her. “For what?”

“I’m starting my senior year of high school soon, and this is my last real summer when I’ll really get to feel like a _kid._ And it just… It hasn’t felt like that at all. It’s still been work, and learning, and preparing for college, and I just wanted something to feel normal. You made it feel normal.” Alyssa turns her head so her chin is on Emma’s shoulder. “You make _me_ feel normal, Emma,” she whispers. “You don’t know how much that matters to me.”

Emma rubs the back of her neck, blushing. “It was just a carnival.”

“It was. And that was what I wanted.”

Their car falls silent as the sky continues to darken.

“Emma.”

Emma turns to her, but before she can speak, Alyssa brushes her fingers along Emma’s jaw, pulls her in, and kisses her.

The kiss lingers, sweet and sugary from carnival treats and soda, a taste of summer Emma knows she’ll never forget.

The car of the Ferris wheel reaches the bottom, and the attendant opens the door, and all of a sudden Alyssa is gone.

Emma stares at the open door, confused and disoriented.

“Can you get out already?” the attendant asks, disinterested.

Emma stumbles out of the car and walks towards the crowd, but someone catches her by the arm.

“Dude, where have you be-” Greg raises an eyebrow and grabs a napkin from a nearby vendor, handing it to her. “Better question. _Who_ have you be- wait, no, that doesn’t work.”

“Huh?”

He prods at her wrist and points at her lips. “You definitely weren’t wearing disheveled red lipstick when you left the house.”

Emma wipes her face and looks down at the red staining the napkin in her hand. “Oh. So that really did happen.”

Greg’s eyes widen. “You kissed the girl? What happened? Where is she? Were you so bad that she ran off?”

“No.” Emma turns and stares out towards the carnival’s entrance/exit. “She had to go home.”

* * *

**_FIVE YEARS LATER_ **

Emma closes her eyes, focused on the music in her headphones as she waits for her plane to take off. She feels the movement of another passenger sitting next to her, but she pays it no mind, idly tapping her fingers against her jeans to the beat of the song.

The person next to her nudges her, and, thinking she’s missing some announcement, she takes her headphones off before she even opens her eyes.

When she finally does see her neighbor, she feels all the blood drain from her face.

Alyssa is somehow even more gorgeous as twenty-two than she was at seventeen.

“Hi,” Alyssa says hesitantly, giving an awkward wave even though they’re right next to each other. “Uhm. I’d bet you probably don’t remember me, but-”

“I think I’d remember you if I only had one memory left.” Emma grimaces. “I have not gotten better at talking.”

Alyssa gives a strained laugh. “I don’t know, I think that was a pretty good job.”

“You’re here,” Emma breathes. “You’re… going to New Orleans.”

“Yeah, I’m meeting some friends down there for Mardi Gras.” Alyssa tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “You?”

“I’m heading down to meet with some musicians. I’ve been writing songs, and I like how they sound, and I think we could work together to make something great.”

“You write songs,” Alyssa murmurs. “I never really thought to ask what you wanted to do.”

Emma laughs. “I wouldn’t have told you this. College kicked my ass. I just wanted to play my guitar. Eventually one of my professors told me that I’d be better off taking music classes and then working in that field than in whatever business field my parents wanted me in.”

Alyssa smiles. “I did something pretty similar. My mother wanted a doctor. I think I’m going to become a lawyer.”

“Oh, so you were just going to be smarter than me no matter what you did.”

“Well, I think that was a given,” Alyssa jokes. She tentatively sets her hand on Emma’s. “I’m sorry that I ran away without saying goodbye.”

“I understood.” Emma gives her a grin. “I just kinda wish you left a glass slipper for me.”

Idly, Alyssa starts brushing her thumb against the back of Emma’s hand. “You know,” she says slowly, “I’ve been thinking of applying to law school at Loyola.”

Emma raises an eyebrow. “Which would mean you’d be in New Orleans for a while. Which, coincidentally, is where I’ll probably be for a while.”

“It wouldn’t be impossible for us to run into each other.”

“Clearly. If we can run into each other on a plane, surely we can run into each other in a city.”

Alyssa shrugs. “And I wouldn’t be opposed to running into each other at an arranged time and place where we could have dinner together.”

Emma grins. “Neither would I.”

Alyssa mirrors her grin. “Good.”

Emma turns her music off so she and Alyssa can talk through the flight. “Who knows, maybe we can find a carnival.”

Alyssa gives a bright, warm laugh, and Emma swears she can taste summer.


End file.
